


the town before next

by sujiverse



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, Non-Linear Narrative, Sexual Tension, based on shawn and camila's "señorita" and the mv
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-16 00:25:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19306909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sujiverse/pseuds/sujiverse
Summary: Sooyoung’s gaze burns, even though she’s peering at her from across the entire length of the dance floor. She stalks over, gaze piercing and jaw clenched, like a predator surveying her prey.But Jungeun--oh, Jungeun, if only Sooyoung knew-- is no prey.





	the town before next

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be pure sexual tension but i had to give it a plot and the plot became ANGST. my hand literally slipped. i'm sorry in advance.

When Sooyoung had pulled up along the highway and visited the lonely diner, she hadn’t expected it to be moderately busy.

 

Heck, she didn’t even expect there to be a single person on shift. But there were plenty of customers and staff members. She guesses she must have missed the parking lot; there were barely any signs of life to the onlooker from the outside.

 

She sits herself down in an empty booth, flipping through the menu for anything that could fill her stomach till the next town. The signature burgers and shakes seemed only mildly appealing, if anything at all. By habit, she pulls out the box in her coat, flipping it open. She’s disappointed to realise she only has three sticks left.

 

The logical part of her wants to ration them out. They can keep her going till the town after the next, where she can stock up. The “live fast, die young” part of her rationalises that she might die from the journey over, or even from the food at this less-than-stellar establishment. Might as well smoke as much as she can.

 

She lights it up.

 

Someone catches her eye while she’s flicking the wheel on the lighter.

 

Her blonde hair flows over her shoulders, light hair making the contrast with her dark brown eyes that much more apparent. The indents of her eyebrows grow deeper as they make eye contact. She has really fair skin, and really pink lips. Extremely pretty, extremely delicate. Just the type of person Sooyoung would love to have under her. She’s also not happy, apparently, with the way she’s frowning at Sooyoung. Her hands pull out of her front apron pocket as she trudges over to the booth.

 

“No smoking indoors,” the waitress says simply. Sooyoung breathes out through her mouth, the smoke forming a momentary shield between them. She glances back with uninterested eyes, trying her hardest to provoke a reaction from the woman.

 

 _Jungeun_ , or so her name-tag reads.

 

“No smoking indoors, Miss.”

 

Sooyoung lets her eyes stray a little from the name-tag. The waitress’ name isn’t the only thing that’s… nice about her.

 

(Yes, Sooyoung is very much staring at the skin exposed by the collared v-neck.)

 

“I don’t recall seeing a sign like that.” Sooyoung knows she sounds smug, and irritatingly so. Puffing out another breath of smoke, she makes sure to get it right in the waitress’ face.

 

“You’re going to regret that.”

 

“Am I?”

 

Jungeun smiles at her. Sweetly.

 

And then without a word, she snatches the cigarette from her lips, snuffing it out against the table.

 

“Hey!”

 

“You wanted a sign? Here’s your sign,” Jungeun spits, flicking the snuffed cigarette in her face. “Get the fuck out.”

 

* * *

 

_She’d lost Jungeun as soon as they arrived._

 

_In the span of time she’d taken to spot the blonde woman again, Sooyoung had gotten herself a drink, had another paid for by a sleazy douchebag by the bar, had punched said sleazy douchebag in the jaw for putting his hands on another woman, had gotten him kicked out, been offered a ‘favour’ by the woman in return for her kindness, and turned down said young woman._

 

_Jungeun spares her only a fraction of a glance, before turning her attention back to the group of boys surrounding her._

 

_Sooyoung’s gaze burns, even though she’s peering at her from across the entire length of the dance floor. She stalks over, gaze piercing and jaw clenched, like a predator surveying her prey._

 

_But Jungeun--oh, Jungeun, if only Sooyoung knew-- is no prey._

 

_Her outstretched hand is taken firmly, and Jungeun steps into her space with poise. The taller woman twirls her around, captures her from the back and slides their bodies against each other. They’re definitely pressing up against each other intentionally, the lack of bodies surrounding them providing them no excuse to be this close to each other. She’s a hair’s breadth away from whispering something in Jungeun’s ear, but doesn’t, because Jungeun dodges and spins away before she can, giggling._

 

_Jungeun’s no prey._

 

_What she is, is a colossal tease._

 

 _There’s only two steps of space between them._ _Sooyoung makes it zero in an instant._

 

_Her breath hitches even though she’s the one who instigated the contact. Bodies flushed against each other, Sooyoung catches the aura Jungeun is so desperately trying to exude-- an air of elegance and pride. As if the duet they were performing was a competition, and Jungeun was winning._

 

_She was._

 

_People are looking on by now. They really have a knack for stealing the spotlight, don’t they?_

 

_Taking Sooyoung’s hand in hers and twirling herself (she’s supposed to let the hand guide her, not the other way around), Jungeun puts some distance between them. But the incessant teasing has made her dance partner impatient. Sooyoung finally gets to say the words she’s been yearning to all night, catching Jungeun mid-twirl by pulling her to her chest._

 

_(Let me take you home.)_

 

_Or not._

 

_The words catch in her throat when Jungeun looks up at her; so disheveled, so flustered, so out of breath like Sooyoung is. The latter is pleased to know she made that possible._

 

_Still, Sooyoung is the one caught off-guard when the kiss happens. It’s hot, almost feverish, and promises so much with so little. It’s just lips pressing against lips, before it spirals deeper. Jungeun reels her in further with both hands locked around her neck. That’s the moment she knew she had surrendered her entire self away to the girl, dropped the tough girl act for good. She was never that tough when it came to pretty women like Jungeun, anyway._

 

_Jungeun’s iron grip pulls her even closer than she could have imagined. She couldn’t escape even if she wanted to._

 

_And boy, did she want to stay there forever._

 

_“Take me home.”_

 

* * *

She’s been waiting for what feels like forever.

 

It’s probably only been a few hours. But with a rumbling stomach and growing dread at the pit of her stomach (God knows why she would feel that way), time seems to pass at a snail’s pace.

 

The sun seems to be setting soon. The sky has already turned orange by its edges, dipping behind the mountains in the distance.

 

She hears the bells on the door ring, and is prepared to be disappointed again. But blonde flashes by her peripheral, and she rises at quickly as she notices it.

 

“Hey,” Sooyoung calls, once more when the girl doesn’t even turn to look at her, “Hey!”

 

“Oh fuck! What the hell?!” The girl jumps back in shock, the creases between her eyebrows growing deeper as Sooyoung tries to take a step towards her. She holds up a hand as a warning. Sooyoung takes it, respecting the distance between them. “What are you doing?”

 

Sooyoung mutters, “Um... Uh, I just wanted to apologise for my behaviour just now…”

 

“Huh, are you now,” Jungeun says, relaxing into a small smile. “Interesting.”

 

“I was an asshole to you. In front of all your customers and coworkers, no less. I just wanted to say I’m sorry, if that counts for anything.”

 

Jungeun folds her arms. “It’s not everyday that girls don’t fall for the tough girl thing you got going on, is that it?”

 

“Yes,” Sooyoung replies candidly. Jungeun laughs to hear that. “But also no. I really wanted to apologise. Let me buy you a drink, or something. Give you a ride home. I’m sorry for what I did back there. It was rude and uncalled for--”

 

“Are you hungry?”

 

Having been kicked out of her lunch destination by this very girl? Yes, Sooyoung was ravenous.

 

“Huh? Oh yeah, very.”

 

“You have a ride out of here?”

 

Sooyoung feels a tug on the corner of her lips watching the girl act coy. She nods, pointing behind her where her motorcycle is parked. “If you call that a ride, then yes, I do.”

 

* * *

 

_It was always a zero-sum game between them, Sooyoung realises one day._

 

_When Sooyoung gives, Jungeun takes with similar ferocity. Then Jungeun gives, and Sooyoung, with a prayer on her lips, takes and takes-- God, does she take._

 

_Their nights out are always cut short either by Jungeun pulling them into the nearest restroom so she can have her way with Sooyoung, or Sooyoung doing the same exact thing._

 

_On their knees, face flushed and lips swollen. They’ve both been there._

 

_But it’s obvious, the disparity in the way they view each other. From the start, Sooyoung has always had to fight for each moment with Jungeun. The latter perhaps, takes Sooyoung’s company a little too much for granted. Either that, or she just couldn’t care less what Sooyoung thought of her actions._

 

_One night she wants Sooyoung close, cuddling by her side. On the next she’s gone before the sunrise, nestled in someone else’s arms, in someone else’s bed, with the taste of someone else on her tongue._

 

_Sooyoung never makes it to the next town. She stays and stays, and prays that Jungeun comes to her at night._

 

_“We’re just friends,” Jungeun keeps telling her, even after Sooyoung becomes the only person she spends her nights with._

 

_(Is it really still a zero-sum game if they’re just friends?)_

 

_Sooyoung cuffs her to the bed frame one particular night, desperate to prove her wrong. Jungeun, with all her heart, enjoys the way Sooyoung litters her body with bruises, to show where her hands and lips have been. Showering her with loving kisses afterward, Sooyoung apologises for each mark, though Jungeun tells her there’s no need to feel sorry at all._

 

_She spends the night-- the entire night-- with her back pressed against Sooyoung’s front, hands intertwined and resting on her stomach. She wakes up to a tender kiss on the forehead and another on the lips._

 

_Yet the tune she sings is still the same._

  

_(But your friends, Jungeun, your friends don’t know the way you taste.)_

 

* * *

 

Illuminated under the neon lights of the bar, Jungeun’s face is a strange shade of hot pink and luminous green. And yet, when she smiles, Sooyoung feels her heartbeat picking up ever so slightly.

 

But what really looks good on Jungeun is the leather jacket Sooyoung so kindly offered, and she had so gratefully taken. With all the first impressions done away with, Jungeun is all bashful smiles and soft touches, the perfect complement to Sooyoung’s steadfast confidence and rough edges. Their conversation drags on longer than expected, and it takes the owner to personally chase them out for the pair to finally leave the diner.

 

“Where are you headed?”

 

“Nowhere in particular. It’s a pretty nice town. I might stay here for a bit. Stock up and recharge. I’ve been moving for too long.”

 

“Are you sure that’s not just an excuse for you to see more of me?” Jungeun teases.

 

“Maybe,” Sooyoung answers under her breath. Her face heats up, and she hurriedly directs the question back at Jungeun. “And you?”

 

Jungeun tilts her head, eyes glinting in the moonlight. She smiles, showing her teeth. “I live here, two blocks down.”

 

“I’ll give you a ride home.”

 

“No, let’s walk,” Jungeun replies, already taking her hand. Sooyoung raises her eyebrows, confused. Jungeun wants her to leave her motorcycle behind at the diner?

 

“My apartment doesn’t have parking space.”

 

Oh. She's expecting her to stay the night.

 

“And that’s not just an excuse for you to see more of me?” Now it’s Sooyoung’s turn to ask the same question.

 

“Touché, but it’s not like you have a place to stay for the night.”

 

Sooyoung shrugs her shoulders, grinning when she replies, “Lead the way.”

 

And lead the way Jungeun does. Along the deserted road which led to her apartment, up the stairs and into her flat, from her doorstep to her bedroom, and finally from the edge of the bed to flush against the bed frame. Sooyoung lets herself become subservient to whatever Jungeun wanted, wherever she wanted her.

 

* * *

 

_She’s quit her job at the car repair shop, said her goodbyes to the lovely landlady and her husband, cleaned the place out and packed all her things. This is how it ends. The summer fling of a lifetime, concluded abruptly, once she steps out of this house._

 

_Sooyoung mentally steels herself, determined to push the handle down and open the door to freedom._

 

_Instead, she lets out a heavy sigh, and releases the chokehold she has on her doorknob._

 

_And that’s when the door opens from the other side. Jungeun, in all her confusion, reveals herself to be the one behind it._

 

_“What are you doing?”_

 

_(She has Sooyoung’s leather jacket on.)_

 

_“I was just about to leave.”_

 

_(There’s a hickey she didn’t bother to cover up, just below her right ear.)_

 

_“For good?”_

 

_(Sooyoung doesn’t remember leaving a mark there.)_

 

_“For good.”_

 

_(Her hair has faded to an ashy grey, and her black roots are peeking out.)_

 

_“No, you weren’t. Not without telling me first.”_

 

_(They’ve known each other for quite a while, haven’t they?)_

 

_“Yes, I was,” Sooyoung says with as much confidence she can muster. It fails of course, terribly so. In front of Jungeun is where she crumbles. “I tried, you know? More than once. Two weeks ago, I packed all my things, all ready to leave this town. But I could never step foot out of this house. It’s just so damn hard to leave you. I don’t get it.”_

 

_“Then stay.”_

 

_“I can’t,” Sooyoung chokes, stumbling on her words, “I can’t, Jungeun. Do you know how hard it is to just be your friend? I can’t kiss you anymore without overthinking. I can’t hold your hand because then I’ll have to watch you shrug it off when somebody asks if we’re a couple. I can’t sleep without you with me but you’re not here even when you promise to be. And if you’re back to sleeping with other people I don’t know how else I’m supposed to do this--”_

 

_“I need you, Sooyoung, please stay,” Jungeun cuts her off, locking her hands around Sooyoung’s nape much like she’s done the past few months. Sooyoung shuts her eyes; she knows she’ll be too weak to resist if she could see how Jungeun was looking at her._

 

_“Stay, stay with me, please.”_

 

_She repeats it like a mantra, against Sooyoung’s lips, until she relents, lips melding with her own._

 

* * *

 

“What’s going to happen after tonight?” Jungeun asks her, slightly out of breath. She glows, even if only under the moonlight gleaming through the windows.

 

_For you? For us?_

 

Jungeun, intentionally or not, leaves the question pretty open, rendering the older woman to guess.

 

Sooyoung cradles her jaw gently, thumb brushing against her bottom lip. It’s a little bruised. The guilt arises with an overwhelming urge to protect the girl she has sprawled in front of her, bare and vulnerable. Her eyes are hopeful, or at least that’s what Sooyoung sees in them.

 

That’s when she decides. Having carried her life’s worth of belongings everywhere she went the past few months, she hasn’t been so sure of anything in a long time.

 

(She goes with the second interpretation.)

 

“Whatever you want to happen. I don’t think I’ll be leaving any time soon.”

 

* * *

 

_It’s almost like d _éjà vu._ _

 

_The moonlight illuminates Jungeun’s face in the best places, giving her an almost ethereal glow. She’s as broken as she is beautiful, and heart-wrenchingly so._

 

_Sooyoung presses a kiss on her forehead, and leaves before the sun rises._

**Author's Note:**

> i really don't know what this is but i even have an epilogue thought up for it. sooyoung escapes to the town after the next, and meets someone who will love her as more than a friend. that person is.... jiwoo/vivi/jinsoul/haseul. take your pick. 
> 
> yell at me/talk to me!  
> twt: @2jinverse


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